10 June 2016

Two books done and I'm already adding new titles to my 20 (or so) Books of Summer ... but I can't help it! I totally and completely blame Twitter. You see, during my long and often boring nights at work (11pm-7am New York time -- in case you forgot or didn't know to begin with) I'm glued to electronics at work. Often the computer, my tablet and my phone are all amusing me in one way or another. I'll be watching something on Hulu or some other streaming site on my tablet, putzing around with Instagram and/or Sims FreePlay on my phone, and then the computer typically has multiple tabs open (Facebook, Twitter, the blogs, the great search for the next great coconut flour recipe to try, etc). For much of the night things stay pretty quiet aside from a couple of friends who also work overnights and the random insomniac.

But there's this wonderful little thing called Greenwich Mean Time (and British Summer Time, of course, depending on when we're talking about). Because of this wonderful little thing the last handful of hours of my work shift sees the wonderful folks across the pond getting up and at 'em and starting their days. And, really, who in their right mind doesn't start the day on Twitter? SOOOO I've gotten to "know" quite a handful of absolutely smashing chatty people who just happen to be authors or editors or publishers. Once in a while (actually, it happens quite often) one will mention or retweet another smashing person I wasn't previously aware of and I'll go snooping about and wham bam I've got more titles added to my wishlist or, if I'm really lucky, my NetGalley shelf.

About a month ago one of my favorite publishing houses, Carina UK, retweeted someone named Liz Tipping about her upcoming book, Don't You Forget About Me, being available to pre-order.

I immediately sang (semi-silently, at least) "Hey hey hey HEY" and the song was imbedded into my brain.

And I told her so.

And I told her not to apologize because it's always a happy earworm to have.

And then we chatted about John Hughes and our mutual love of Some Kind of Wonderful until it was time for me to at least pretend to work again and I added her book to my wishlist.

FINALLY the book was released on June 6th and I received my copy from NetGalley right before it got archived ... and right after I had started to read something else. Luckily that was a fast read because I was so tempted to say to it "eh - you can wait" and carry on with the John Hughes lovefest.

Now, lately I've been doing my Book Beginnings & Friday 56 images together but this deserves a little bit more than that so I'm splitting them up. As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

An athlete, a princess, a brain, a criminal, a basket case…

Cara Dunham is definitely one of them. But stuck in her small hometown, with no prospects of escape, she's struggling to find her thing. Her life is more book club than Breakfast Club and there is no Judd Nelson in sight!

So when Cara is invited to a school reunion she knows this is her chance to channel her inner Molly Ringwald and grab her John Hughes moment, once and for all. Because her teenage love, Daniel Rose will be there, the coolest boy at school and the one that got away.

But transforming into an 80's icon isn't easy and Cara enlists the help of her oldest friend, Stubbs, to teach her all she needs to know about being cool and quirky – a la Ringwald.

Except Stubbs thinks she’s perfect, just as she is and takes it upon himself to show Cara that her life might not be ‘movie perfect’, but there is always another take to get things right. And maybe the hero she's dreamed of has been under her nose the whole time…

Of course, after seeing the description I knew that Stubbs would be The One to cheer for. I didn't have the book in my possession yet I was obsessing over Stubbs just like Duckie and Watts and every other Hughes underdog who didn't always get the happy ending. (I'm fairly certain that Watts was Hughes' way of making up for Duckie. Duckie was supposed to get the girl, dangit!)

Then we fast forward to the 56% mark with Cara and Stubbs. (He even has the perfect Hughes-Underdog-But-Still-The-One name, doesn't he???) I love her slip at the end of the blurb.

Everything in between the beginning and the 56% is absolutely delightful. -- especially for those of us who can more or less recite the lines to multiple Hughes films like Cara and her best friend Verity can. I haven't made it much further than that at this point thanks to work and sleep and coconut flour, but I already know that Cara had better end up with Duckie .... I mean Stubbs ....

Oh, I love those songs from the John Hughes films! In the 1980s, we didn't have DVDs, of course, but I saw the movies on my VCR, and later collected the DVD versions. I don't think any of the current teen movies come close to what John Hughes produced.

I love the sound of this book, too. Thanks for sharing...and here's mine: “INTRUSION”

I need this book in my life! I absolutely love the sound of it and now you have me wanting to watch The Breakfast Club and sing Don't You Forget About Me! Like you said though there are worse things to happen. Thanks for sharing!

Okay...this sounds like a must read for me - though I have to admit that I wasn't a huge Duckie fan - though I was very happy with his ending in Pretty in Pink - I think it was a better ending for him than for Andie because we all know that "Blane" would revert to his true self and be a real butthead later on...lol...Here's my Friday meme